Gwangju Nam-gu's 'Energy Voucher Issuance Rate' Hits Record High

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 17th that the issuance rate of the 2022 energy vouchers provided to energy-vulnerable groups in the district has exceeded 100%.

This is because the number of people trying to save even a penny on energy costs has increased, and the district office has actively worked to identify eligible recipients to alleviate the hardships of low-income residents and realize energy welfare.

According to Nam-gu, energy vouchers are intended to support energy needed for heating and cooling for vulnerable residents, and the support amount is applied differently depending on the number of household members.

In particular, the support amount for the 2022 winter energy vouchers was temporarily doubled, and the application deadline was extended by two months until the end of February this year.

Due to the increase in support amount and extension of the application period, the issuance rate of the 2022 winter energy vouchers showed a significant upward trend.

According to the energy voucher issuance status in Nam-gu over the past three years, as of this date, the issuance rate for the 2022 energy vouchers was 100.4%.

This is a significant increase compared to 96.7% in 2020 and 95.8% in 2021, and it is 4.9% higher than the average issuance rate of 95.5% for the 2022 winter energy vouchers in the Gwangju area.

The reason the issuance rate of energy vouchers in the district exceeded 100% is that the proportion of energy heating costs in low-income households is considerable, and many try to cover the increased expenses through voucher use.

Along with this, the district office’s active efforts to identify eligible households are also considered effective.

In fact, Nam-gu actively promoted the energy voucher support project using the district office newsletter, neighborhood meeting reports, SNS, mail, and text messages, and conducted phone guidance four times for residents who had not applied, resulting in the distribution of vouchers to 5,727 households in the district.

A Nam-gu official said, “The record-high issuance rate of energy vouchers means that the difficulties of vulnerable households are very severe,” and added, “We will put more effort into identifying eligible recipients until the application deadline at the end of February to provide stronger support to energy-vulnerable residents.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.